Thescholarship was established in honor of AIA Honorary President Elizabeth Bartman to assist graduate students, or those who have recently completed a master’s degree, in Archaeology or a related field (e.g., Anthropology, Art History, Classics, History, etc.) meet expenses associated with undertaking a museum internship (minimum duration a summer or semester). Specific projects will vary and might include the following: collection cataloguing, provenance or archival research, exhibition preparation, the writing of labels and/or didactic panels, assisting with websites and presentations in other media, such as audio guides and exhibition videos, and participating more broadly in museum activities, working with conservators, art handlers, designers, and other museum professionals.

When I submitted a paper for a provenance workshop at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in January 2017, I never expected a publication to come out it. I was just excited that my first presentation at an AIA meeting was actually held in Toronto (my old graduate stomping grounds) and that for once I knew where to go for lunch without Googling restaurants! (And, unlike so many, I knew how to dress for -20 Celsius weather!)

It was a pleasant surprise when our workshop moderator let us know that our session had been chosen (along with two others) for publication on the theme of collecting and collectors in the Selected Papers on Ancient Art and Architecture (SPAAA) series. (Contributions to that series are ‘by invitation only’ so this was very exciting.) I submitted the article version of my presentation and it was accepted by the peer review committee… and after a few months of delay the volumeis now available!

In the fall, the AIA will, and I quote from page 66, “allow young archaeology enthusiasts to be part of the AIA.” Kids and teens will get an ID card, a subscription to a newsletter and an archaeology publication… and get to do a bunch of other very cool things!

You might think I have gone off on some weird tangent about ruins with this and my last post title, but no. Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble is the title of a book by Marilyn Johnson, in which she delves into the lives of archaeologists. I saw the book as I browsed the book stalls at the AIA meeting in NOLA, took down the title and borrowed it from the public library when I got home.

The book is fun, witty and well written. I have been giggling or laughing out loud since I picked up the volume and started reading it yesterday. I can totally related to the archaeologists she met and worked with for her book. I just finished reading the chapter entitled Extreme Beverages, which I knew had to be about Patrick McGovern, the beer archaeologist. Indeed, it was about Dr. Pat and the keynote lecture he gave at the AIA annual meeting held in Philadelphia (I believe that was in 2012).

Strangely enough, that was my first AIA conference and I attended that very lecture (it’s kind of weird to have attended an event mentioned in a book… the lecture was great fun). At the reception, I tried of one of his reversed-engineered extreme beverages created by studying residue in vessels found at archaeological digs around the world. I sampled the Honduran alcoholic cocoa drink Theobroma… although, as an Egyptologist, I should have tried the Egyptian beer, Ta Henket–even if I don’t like beer. (Don’t tell Dr. Pat!) Ever since that lecture, I have in mind to bring the beer archaeologist to Raleigh… he’s at the top of my list of must-have speakers! If he’s giving a talk in your neighbourhood, go! You’ll have a blast. Oh! And Johnson’s book is a fun and easy read.

Last night I got back from 4 days in New Orleans where, in addition to having delicious beignets, chicory coffee, gumbo and a gator poorboy, I attended the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Although I know nothing of archaeology in South-East Asia, I attended the keynote lecture on Angkor and the Khmer civilisation of Cambodia (Angkor Wat is on my bucket list). It was an excellent talk and I learned new things. I also attended the reception, where I met up with friends. Some of us crashed the U of T Classics alum party… but we knew nobody there (even though Emily and I are U of T grads). The Egyptology programme at U of T is in the Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations department and we have little to do with Classics. I never actually took a class in that department

Most of the talks I attended were about the Roman Republic or Empire and Greek ceramics. However, being in charge of the collections of the ancient Americas at the NCMA, I also sat in on a session about New World archaeology where I learned stuff about the Maya civilisation and Easter Island. I also browsed the kiosks of the book vendors and the AIA souvenir counter, where I saw hilarious magnets, some of which I bought for my fridge magnet collection.

There were the cute ones…

and the ‘must-have’ one for the female archaeologists who happen to like 80s music…

There is a nice article in Archaeology, the AIA magazine, on the Miniature Pyramids of Sudan, about fieldwork at Sedeinga. Actually, during my first dig season in Sudan back in 2000, I worked at the site with the French mission for one month (after spending the previous month with the Canadian mission at Meroe–see the Day in the life of an archaeologist chronicle). That is where I met my friend Vincent Francigny, who is now co-director of the excavations. Enjoy the article!